Harassments are tolerated in some situations as per the culture of the workplace. For example, few would get used to such discriminations and others never tell about it just because they might be isolated from their colleagues or lose their employment altogether. Another reason is that even when they disclose it, no measures would be taken even though laws against...
Introduction Want to know how to write a rhetorical analysis essay that impresses? You have to understand the power of persuasion. The power of persuasion lies in the ability to influence others' thoughts, feelings, or actions through effective communication. In everyday life, it...
Harassments are tolerated in some situations as per the culture of the workplace. For example, few would get used to such discriminations and others never tell about it just because they might be isolated from their colleagues or lose their employment altogether. Another reason is that even when they disclose it, no measures would be taken even though laws against it do exist. To make the situation worse, the employers prefer people who never disclose such harassments just because in such a case they need to deal with the issue first hand.
Workplace discrimination is a violation of federal and state laws and Title VII of The Civil Rights Act, 1964, prohibits "discrimination in terms and conditions of employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, and religion." The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits age discrimination (above 40 years) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) urge "reasonable accommodations" for the disabled. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) tell that employees must not be discriminated with personal or medical needs. Failure to implement these directives, discrimination can lead to employees filing discrimination lawsuits against the company. Such court cases are really expensive and the company can lose money if the judgment is in favor of the employee (Nayab, 2010).
Nayab (2010) explains that the 21st-century workplace is multicultural in that it not only demoralizes, but also affiliates workers with the victim's group. Formation of cliques out of distrust, among the workers, as a result of discrimination, can affect free flow of communications and teamwork.
Workplace discrimination usually affects the employee's psyche and the victim goes to a state of depression. This can further lead to domestic violence and murders due to loss of self-esteem. In addition to the violence, appearing in the courtroom also has a huge psychological impact (Nayab, 2010).
Workplace discrimination is also a major cause of the nation's increasing unemployment. Companies refuse to hire people due to certain biases, for example, many companies refuse to hire women. Altogether, workplace discrimination spreads negative impact on any organization, an individual, and the society (Nayab, 2010).
The starting point for any programme is an equality policy. It does not require a law to clarify it and is an integral part of a business strategy. Employees should be given a harassment-free working environment to be able to give their best (ACAS, 2005).
There should be an action plan to complement the equality policy and it should be in tandem with key tasks regarding what should be done and who should do it. It should be monitored as any other managerial task, and most importantly, be among the objectives and responsibilities of individuals in management (ACAS, 2005).
The staff in every process such as recruitment, appraisal, selection for promotion, supervision, resource allocation, etc., should be made aware of the issues in such tasks. Also, there should be equality training for the new staff and a periodic refreshing training for the existing staff members (ACAS, 2005).
It should be stated in the company policy that those processes in the company are based only on merit and any breaching of such policies is clearly an offense. Grievances should also be dealt with normally except if the company in question has stated a separate procedure (ACAS, 2005).
Another step in preventing harassment in the workplace involves providing equal pay for all employees without coverage in the Equality legislation as it covers only fair pay. Pay audits should be conducted to ensure that the Equal Pay Act is in place and confirms that both men and women get the same pay for the same work they do (ACAS, 2005).
Another focused step is monitoring; it helps examine how the policies and action plan actually work. The policy should also represent the population of the geographic area in which it is implemented. Monitoring enables employees to assess this (ACAS, 2005).
REFERENCES
ACAS. (2005, March). Tackling discrimination and promoting equality. Retrieved December 7, 2016, from ACAS: http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=318
Bhattarai, A. (2016, August 8). Chipotle ordered to pay $550,000 for discriminating against pregnant worker. Retrieved from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/chipotle-ordered-to-pay-550000-for-discriminating-against-pregnant-worker/2016/08/09/
Nayab, N. (2010, September 9). Crippling Effects of Workplace Discrimination. Retrieved December 7, 2016, from Bright Hub: http://www.brighthub.com/office/human-resources/articles/87966.aspx
Okechukwu, C. A., Souza, K., Davis, K. D., & Castro, A. B. (2014). Discrimination, Harassment, Abuse and Bullying in the Workplace: Contribution of Workplace Injustice to Occupational Health Disparities. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 57(5), 573-586. Retrieved from Wiley Online Library: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajim.22221/full
The remaining sections cover Conclusions. Subscribe for $1 to unlock the full paper, plus 130,000+ paper examples and the PaperDue AI writing assistant — all included.
Always verify citation format against your institution's current style guide.